The transparent search for wisdom by exploring what is not yet known, aka ignorance. Online teacher and author willing to admit there is a lot she does not yet know.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Down the rabbit hole... CCK11 Day 3

#CCK11 - Day 3

Lewis Carroll's Alice and I seem to be having a shared experience. What was up is down, what was in is out... Or as she would say, "Curiouser and curiouser..." Connectivism and my ignorant brain are not yet... wellllll... connecting! Having joined today's Elluminate live session and hearing Stephen and George both explaining this theory using various metaphors was appreciated, but so far it didn't help.

What did help a little was their instruction to 'expect to be confused.' Hurrah! Check that off the list! I have confusion to spare. The back channel discussion showed I am not the only one checking off 'expect to be confused' from the to-do list.

At times I get the idea of connectedness between people growing the knowledge. Then I try to put technology as a connector not as a conduit and I falter again. Where I am really struggling though is picturing this as a learning theory which guides our intent as teachers planning lessons and courses.

Connecting learners is not new to me. In fact it is a signpost in every course I teach. How to give students the openness to go forth and connect and still learn what some accrediting body says my course is supposed to teach is where I join Alice in her fall down the rabbit hole. Picturing the non-structure of the current MOOC experience as a way to teach my course objectives... well I can't picture it. Not in 2-D, 3-D, jigsaw...

Perhaps part of the connectivist philosophy is that traditional courses, educational institutions etc. have failed so poorly (and they really have and I am part of this system) that we junk the whole thing and just connect to whatever we want to learn, from whomever we want to learn it? Is my confusion coming from trying to overlay connectivism on the existing structure?

Oh my! Which way did that white rabbit go? Alice... Oh Alice... wait up, I would like to connect with you!